September 2023 MBR The World History Shelf

The World History Shelf

Before Scotland: A Prehistory
Alistair Moffat
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110-0017
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9780500297254, $18.95, PB, 400pp

https://www.amazon.com/Before-Scotland-Prehistory-Alistair-Moffat/dp/0500297258

Synopsis: The story of the land that became Scotland is one of dramatic geological events and impressive human endeavor. In "Before Scotland: A Prehistory", author Alistair Moffat's gripping narrative ranges from the great thaw at the end of the Ice Age, which was instrumental in shaping Scotland's magnificent landscape; through the megalith builders, the Celts, and the Picts; to the ascension of King Constantine II.

As a writer and historian, Moffat deploys his knowledge with wit and deftness, interweaving the story with numerous special features on topics as diverse as cave drawings of dancing girls, natural birth control, the myth of Atlantis, and the Zoroastrian Towers of Silence -- all of them valuable, sometimes quirky, additions to the whole picture.

Erudite and entertaining, Before Scotland transforms our understanding of a neglected period and is essential reading for anyone interested in the people, events, and monuments that make up Scotland's captivating past.

Critique: As inherently fascinating as it is impressively informative, "Before Scotland: A Prehistory" is an exceptionally well written, organized and presented historical study that is enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a section of 22 color illustrations. A welcome, unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Scotland history collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Before Scotland: A Prehistory" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note: Alistair Moffat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_Moffat) was born in Kelso, Scotland. He is an award-winning writer and historian, was director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and is former rector of the University of St. Andrews. He is also the founder of the Borders Book Festival and co-chairman of the Great Tapestry of Scotland. His many books include The Highland Clans and Scotland's Forgotten Past.

The Vanished Settlers of Greenland
Robert W. Rix
Cambridge University Press
One Liberty Plaza, Fl. 20, New York, NY 10006
www.cambridge.org
9781009359474, $39.99, HC, 217pp

https://www.amazon.com/Vanished-Settlers-Greenland-Search-Legend/dp/1009359479

Synopsis: For four hundred years, Norse settlers battled to make southern Greenland a sustainable home for themselves. They strove against gales and winter cold, food shortages and in the end, a shifting climate.

The remnants they left behind speak of their determination to wrest an existence at the foot of this vast, icy and challenging wilderness. Yet finally, seemingly suddenly, they vanished; and their mysterious disappearance in the fifteenth century has posed a riddle to scholars ever since.

What happened to the lost Viking colonists? For centuries people assumed their descendants could still be living, so expeditions went to find them: to no avail.

With the publication of "The Vanished Settlers of Greenland: In Search of a Legend and Its Legacy" Robert Rix tells the gripping story of the missing pioneers, placing their poignant history in the context of cultural discourse and imperial politics. Ranging across fiction, poetry, navigation, reception and tales of exploration, he expertly delves into one of the most contested questions in the annals of colonization.

Critique: A seminal and groundbreaking study, "The Vanished Settlers of Greenland: In Search of a Legend and Its Legacy" by Professor Robert Rix is a model of exhaustive research and meticulous scholarship. Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a forty-six page Bibliography, thirty-nine pages of Notes, and a six page Index, "The Vanished Settlers of Greenland: In Search of a Legend and Its Legacy" will have an immense appeal and value for readers with an interest in Scandinavian history and European Literature. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $29.99), "The Vanished Settlers of Greenland: In Search of a Legend and Its Legacy" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library European History collections and Greenlnd History curriculums in particular.

Editorial Note: Robert W. Rix (https://engerom.ku.dk/english/staff/?pure=en/persons/51467) is Associate Professor and Director of Research at the University of Copenhagen. He is widely known for his prolific publication profile in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century studies. This includes areas such as politics, religion, language, nationalism, and print culture. Rix has also published on earlier periods, for example The Barbarian North in Medieval Imagination Ethnicity, Legend, and Literature (2014).

The Talavera Campaign 1809
Tim Saunders
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.penandswordbooks.com
9781399040037, $54.95, HC, 272pp

https://www.amazon.com/Talavera-Campaign-1809-Tim-Saunders/dp/1399040030

Synopsis: Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Wellesley returned to the Peninsular in 1809 convinced that the country could be held against the French. His audacious crossing of the Duoro and speedy victory at Oporto in May, followed by the deceptively easy ejection of Marshal Soult's corps, confirmed this view, giving him the confidence to plan a campaign with General Cuesta's Army of Extremadura to advance on French-held Madrid via the Tagus Valley.

From the outset relations between the two allied generals were poor, not to mention the divisions and enmity within the Spanish juntas and army. Matters only got worse once Wellesley's army entered Spain, thanks to a failure to provide supplies and missed opportunities. Finally, the French army, with King Joseph at its head, marched to confront the allies at Talavera.

The fighting did not start well for the British, who were taken by surprise and had to fight hard to extricate themselves from trouble, before inexperienced staff officers and commanders mis-deployed divisions and brigades, nearly resulting in disaster for the Allies when Marshal Victor launched a night attack. The Peninsular Army still had much to learn.

The following day, the French attacked again with the full force of a Napoleonic army infantry, cavalry and artillery, but the two-deep British line held and with their confidence shattered, the French withdrew. It was a hard-fought victory for the British commander, who was soon to be ennobled as the Duke of Wellington.

Critique: An exemplary historical study, "The Talavera Campaign 1809" by Tim Saunders is a simply fascinating and impressively informative work of meticulous research resulting in a detailed examination of a key event in early 19th Century British Military history. Profusely illustrated throughout with b/w illustrations, as well as featuring two Appendices (An Example of Wellesley's General Orders; Orders of Battle), six pages of Notes, and a three page Index, "The Talavera Campaign 1809" is a core addition to personal, professional, community, college and university library British Military History collections and curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, historians, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Talavera Campaign 1809" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $22.49).

Editorial Note: Tim Saunders served as an infantry officer with the British Army for thirty years, during which time he took the opportunity to visit campaigns far and wide, from ancient to modern. Since leaving the Army he has become a full time military historian, with this being his sixteenth book, has made nearly fifty full documentary films with Battlefield History and Pen & Sword. He is an active guide and Accredited Member of the Guild of Battlefield Guides. (https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Major-Tim-Saunders/a/227)

1066: The Lost Hastings Battlefield
David John Barnby, author
John Leftwich, author
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.penandswordbooks.com
9781399049054, $42.95, HC, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/1066-Battlefield-David-John-Barnby/dp/1399049054

Synopsis: The year 1066 is a date in English history that changed the way people lived and were governed, as well as transforming the language of the land. Astonishingly, the research reported in "1066: The Lost Hastings Battlefield" by co- authors David Barnby and John Leftwich finds the traditional site attracting many thousands of visitors each year is not where the battle was actually fought!

The death of King Edward the Confessor in January 1066 set off competing claims for the English throne by Norwegian King Harald Hardrada, Duke William of Normandy and the English magnate, Harold Godwinson; contentions finally settled at the epic Battle of Hastings later that year.

"1066: The Lost Hastings Battlefield" tells a compelling story, beginning with the Norman duke's crossing with an army, that included a large cavalry contingent, in a fleet of Viking looking longboats from St Valery on the French coast, to the final battle, the Battle of Hastings, on Blackhorse Hill on the high ridge some two miles east of the traditional site at Battle Abbey. It was there that King Harold met his end when surrounded and attacked by Norman knights in the closing stages of the battle. In addition, the story from the Viking invasion of Lindisfarne until William's crossing of the Channel and events leading up to William's death have been included to provide context to our main story.

The sequence of events told here relies upon the several historic accounts and the placing of events, carefully matching them to the terrain described there with the topography of the area, a painstaking process of trial and error, to accurately place the battle site on Blackhorse Hill. The author has made use of satellite imagery, not previously available to earlier authors on the battle, to confirm the location of the old Cinque port of Hastings (first proposed by Nick Austin in his Secrets of the Norman Invasion), the site of Duke Williams's pre-battle camp. The author has analyzed the relative distances from the old port to the Battle Abbey site and the Blackhorse Hill site to eliminate the former and confirm the latter.

As far as is known, no-one has ever considered the Blackhorse Hill site before and it is hoped that this will inspire researchers to expand upon these findings.

Critique: An original, iconoclastic, significant, and invaluable contribution to the history of 1066 AD and the Norman invasion of England, "1066: The Lost Hastings Battlefield" is enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a two page listing of Bibliography Resources, ten pages of Notes, and a five page Index. While with the highest recommendation possible for personal, professional, community, college and university library English Military History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted that "1066: The Lost Hastings Battlefield" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $22.49).

Editorial Note #1: David Barnby graduated from what is now known as the City University, London in electrical engineering and following a long career in telecommunications engineering, turned to writing and produced several books. His book, Life and Times of Nicolas Forget follows the life of the mid-17th century French Canadian explore and fur trader, who was the previously unidentified traveling companion of Des Grossellier. With a life-long interest in history and analytical skills gained during his working life, it was an easy transition for him to researching and writing "1066: The Lost Hastings Battlefield".

Editorial Note #2: John Leftwich is the model maker extraordinaire who constructed a model of the Hastings Battlefield for the better understanding of the battlefield topography. He also drew the maps and diagrams for the book and advised on technical issues. He has a long career in the graphic arts industry producing both technical and figurative illustrations, and later graphic designs for print.

Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I
Tracy Borman
Atlantic Monthly Press
c/o Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
www.groveatlantic.com
9780802162069, $29.00, HC, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Anne-Boleyn-Elizabeth-Daughter-Forever/dp/0802162061

Synopsis: Much of the fascination with Britain's legendary Tudors centers around the dramas surrounding Henry VIII and his six wives and Elizabeth I's rumored liaisons. Yet the most fascinating relationship in that historic era may well be that between the mother and daughter who, individually and collectively, changed the course of British history.

The future Queen Elizabeth was not yet three when her mother, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded on May 19, 1536, on Henry's order, incensed that she had not given him a son and tired of her contentious nature. Elizabeth had been raised away from court, rarely even seeing Anne; and after her death, Henry tried in every way to erase Anne's presence and memory. At that moment in history, few could have predicted that mother and daughter would each leave enduring, and interlocked, legacies.

Yet as Tracy Borman reveals with the publication of "Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Forever Changed British History" (the first-ever joint portrait), both women broke the mold for British queens and for women in general at the time.

Anne was instrumental in reforming and reshaping forever Britain's religious traditions, and her years of wielding power over a male-dominated court provided an inspiring role model for Elizabeth's glittering, groundbreaking 45-year reign. Indeed, Borman shows how much Elizabeth (most visibly by refusing to ever marry, but in many other more subtle ways that defined her court) was influenced by her mother's legacy.

In its originality, "Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I" sheds new light on two of history's most famous women, including the private desires, hopes, and fears that lay behind their dazzling public personas, and the surprising influence each had on the other during and after their lifetimes. In the process, Tracy Borman reframes our understanding of the entire Tudor era.

Critique: A seminal and ground breaking work of meticulous, extraordinary, and detailed scholarship, "Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Forever Changed British History" is a significant, welcome, and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, college, and university library British Royal History/Biography collections and supplemental Tudor Era curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Forever Changed British History" is also available in a paperback edition (9781399705073, $26.69, Amazon.com) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.24).

Editorial Note: Tracy Borman (https://www.hrp.org.uk/tracy-borman) is England's joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust, and Chancellor of Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln. She is the author of many highly acclaimed books, including Crown & Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy from William the Conqueror to Charles III; Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him; The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain's Greatest Dynasty; Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant; Queen of the Conqueror: The Life of Matilda, Wife of William I; Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen; Witches: A Tale of Sorcery, Scandal and Seduction; as well as the trilogy of novels The King's Witch, The Devil's Slave, and The Fallen Angel. Borman is also a regular broadcaster and accomplished public speaker.

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